With €100M in total funding, Swedish startup advances renewable grid stability in Europe

Flower, a Stockholm-based energy tech firm, has finalized a €20M addition to its Series A funding round, closing it at €45M and bringing total investment to €100M. Founded in 2020, Flower is working on optimizing Europe’s evolving energy systems by combining AI-driven platforms with Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS). Northzone led the round, joined by Giant Ventures, Sony Innovation Fund, and a group of prominent angel investors. The funding will support Flower’s entry into new European markets, including Germany, Austria, and France, as well as further development of its BESS technology.

Flower is helping enable and control the clean energy system of tomorrow by creating flexibility, stability, and predictability of energy usage within global grids, while simultaneously providing owners of renewable power assets with new and better revenue streams. It does so via its AI-driven platform and infrastructural hardware.

Flower has developed a platform for the optimisation of energy assets, making it possible to control the energy flows in electricity systems. Flower’s AI-powered forecasting capabilities help manage solar, wind, and battery parks, as well as at-home storage. This consequently enables grid operators to mitigate against the frequency volatility of renewable energy production, and make efficient use of local markets, deploying power when it is most clean and affordable. This provides producers with greater oversight and helps maintain energy price consistency for consumers. This in turn decreases the need for time-consuming and expensive grid expansion.

Flower’s Series A round was led by Northzone with additional investment from Giant Ventures; 82an Invest (a joint venture between the Wallenberg Foundation’s FAM and returning investor 41an Invest, the investment vehicle of H&M founder and CEO Karl-Johan Persson and Glocalnet and Kivra founder Stefan Krook); Sony Innovation Fund; and angel investors Thomas von Koch (Partner at the EQT Foundation), and Founder of game developer King, Sebastian Knutsson. Northzone General Partner Pär-Jörgen Pärson has also joined Flower’s board.

Flower will deploy this latest capital towards ambitious pan-European expansion, as well as furthering development of its infrastructural Battery Energy Storage Systems. Active currently in Sweden and Denmark, Flower will become operational also throughout the DACH region, France, the Netherlands, and Belgium throughout 2025 and 2026.

John Diklev, Founder and CEO of Flower comments: “2024 has already been a pivotal year in the growth of Flower, with our acquisition of Sweden’s largest battery park and the announcement of significant new partnerships. Completing our Series A round, and bringing on board some of Sweden and Europe’s leading investors in the process, is not just a major milestone on the Flower journey, but towards the energy systems of tomorrow that we are helping to build.”

Pär-Jorgen Pärson, General Partner at Northzone, who is joining Flower’s board adds, “We’re very excited about the team’s pioneering approach to addressing the challenges of renewable energy with cutting-edge, AI-driven optimization combined with grid-level battery systems to transform the grid throughout Europe. We have never seen such a fast-moving company.”

Co-founder and Managing Partner at Giant Ventures Cameron McLain adds, “Energy flexibility is essential to building a resilient energy grid. Flower has achieved impressive growth with its bold vertically-integrated approach, and we’re excited for what’s next.”

“Flower’s cutting-edge optimization platform and portfolio of flexible energy assets will help accelerate the transition towards renewable energy, which aligns well with our vision for a sustainable future,” comments Antonio Avitabile, Managing Director EMEA at Sony Innovation Fund. “We are excited to join Flower on their growth journey and to support the team with internationalization.”

Flower was founded in 2020 by John Diklev. Its name is a portmanteau of ‘Flexible Power’. In 2023, Flower recorded revenue of 100M SEK (€8.6M), a x10 increase YOY vs. 2022, with a further 2-3x increase forecast for 2024. Flower has grown its team to 130 employees from 25+ countries as it scales to become a leader in European energy flexibility. In February, Flower announced a new partnership with Kalmar Energi to promote sustainable energy solutions through a large-scale battery storage facility, and in April acquired Sweden’s largest battery park, 42.5MW Bredhälla and followed that up by acquiring another 40MW park, Pajkölen, in September. In 2024, Flower activated a number of new battery projects to create the largest battery portfolio in its native Sweden.

As Europe’s grids transition away from fossil fuels and towards renewables like solar and wind, energy production will become more variable. With every hour of energy being priced at auction the day prior, global disruption and the increased use of renewables have led to increased price volatility. Flower’s platform incorporates trading data from these energy markets, weather forecasting, and advanced modelling of consumer behaviours to provide unparalleled optimisation oversight into energy supply and demand. This allows for the full control of energy assets and can be used to align solar and wind production with peak consumption, alleviating grid congestion.

Flower also supplements grid flexibility with the development of flexible energy storage, or Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS). Acting as a direct-to-grid solution BESS can support energy grid owners by providing flexibility.

In order to manage the evolving energy supply, Europe and the US will require grid-scale energy storage, namely battery parks, to offer flexibility and balance the electricity grid for both energy producers and consumers. Renewables such as wind and solar have variable rates of production based on time and location, and BESS can store that energy and distribute it to the grid to ensure demand meets supply.

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